Another Autumn
by mew-tsubaki
Summary: Maydayverse, drabble. Things are quiet at Shell Cottage, as they should be. But that won't last for long. *Pre-Epilogue, canon-compliant; done for HP Ship Weeks*


**Another Autumn**

A HariPo drabble

by mew-tsubaki

Note: The _Harry Potter_ characters belong to J.K. Rowling, not me. I ship Bill/Fleur for LIFE. Yes. Yup. And their kids…I write about them (mainly Vic, and Louis) way too much. I love this part of the family! I'm so glad Billeur's in HP Ship Weeks! X3 Read, review, and enjoy!

- ^-^3

It…was very quiet in Shell Cottage. Not that Bill hated that. In fact, after all that had happened in the past year, he rather enjoyed being able to spend quality time with his new wife in their new home. They hadn't had that chance, not really, what with Ron and his mates staying with them for a short time and with the cottage needing to be an Order safe house and with Harry staying with them for a short bit after the war before taking care of Twelve Grimmauld Place to make it safe and livable again.

But, at last, things were quiet.

Bill watched Fleur move about the kitchen while he sipped his latte (she'd gotten him addicted years ago) and skimmed _The Daily Prophet_. The paper was still mostly rubbish, though more than a year had passed since the end of the war. Deciding not to get frustrated, Bill switched to his copy of _The Quibbler_ and found some amusement.

"What bread shall we 'ave today?" Fleur asked her husband as the quiet persisted this morning.

"Anything's fine with me, you know that," he replied.

"Zen I vote for sourdough."

Bill nodded. He didn't think anything of it as Fleur made bread and bustled about doing this thing and that thing in the kitchen. Fleur actually loved being in the kitchen. Surprisingly, after getting some pointers from his mother, she'd taken to it like a baby hippogriff to the sky. She said that she preferred her own mother's baking and pastry recipes, but she appreciated Molly's knowledge of what Fleur deemed "potluck foods."

"It's called 'home cooking,'" he'd told her with a smile.

"And I would like to avoid ze 'H' sounds, _merci beaucoup_," she'd remarked with an annoyed blush.

Bill had wondered from time to time if he should help Fleur try to master English…but he always told himself "no." Fleur's accent was cute, anyway. And as this morning persisted in silence, he frowned. He really did love her accent and the sound of her voice—he loved everything about her—so he missed it. "Fleur, is everything all right?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, distracted.

He thought for a moment before responding. "You _do_ know what I said yesterday is only a possibility, right?"

"Of course."

"Gringotts won't send me back to Egypt yet. And even when they do, it'll only be for a few more years, so that I've done enough fieldwork to have earned my pension. Then they'll let me return to my desk job, and that'll just be part-time."

Fleur nodded.

Bill squinted his blue eyes and put the papers and his coffee off to the side. "Fleur, it's still a long time off."

Finally she straightened up and tensed. "I know," she said evenly.

He almost breathed a sigh of relief. So that _was _bothering her. That was good. At least he could handle something like this. He got up and walked around the counter to pull her into his arms; usually that made things better. But Fleur was strangely stiff and didn't take to his affection. Now he was concerned. He tilted her head up to look at him. "Fleur," he said sternly.

The color of her eyes…it was crystalline. He'd always thought they'd looked cold until that first time he'd seen her smile and seen the warmth in them. But now he saw them dulled with worry. "I—" she began. She pursed her lips. "**Our life will always be exciting, won't it**?" she said in French.

He replied in kind, knowing it was best to humor her when she switched languages. "**Well, knowing a family like mine…knowing someone like Harry…can't be avoided, I suppose**."

"**And now that we're all settled down, now what**? **What's next, for us**?"

"**Whatever we want, love**."

"**Good**. I am pregnant."

Bill blinked. It took him a moment to realize she'd switched back to English in a snap. But surely she hadn't… He gaped at her. "_What_?"

Colored flooded her cheeks, and her eyes were a warm, comforting blue—like the blue of the sky on a sunny day. Sweet Merlin, he loved sunny days, in Egypt and at home. "I'm pregnant," she repeated, more quietly and yet more assuredly as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

Joy bubbled up inside him, and he began laughing. "Oh my—! Oh my… Oh…!" He couldn't even get out a coherent sentence, he was so happy. He held Fleur tight against him, and they began dancing, caught up in the moment. It was as if they were back at their wedding…before the war arrived on their doorstep. He slowed down, suddenly a million things brewing in his brain. "But wait. Our child… I mean, part Veela? That's fine. But part…" He hesitated. "Part _wolf_…?"

Fleur glared at him and smacked his cheeks, holding his face in her hands. "No talk of zat, William!" She sweetly kissed his forced pucker. "Eet will be our child, and eet will be whatever we raise eet to be."

He nodded, and his heart swelled again. It was hard to forget all the reasons why he'd married her when she reminded him like this. Bill held her even tighter than before. "I was just thinking how quiet the house was," he murmured into her shoulder.

"Enjoy eet while eet lasts, zen, William. So zat gives you until sometime een May."

- ^-^3

**X3 Hope it wasn't too confusing…? Basically, this is set in September 1999, since Victoire was born in May 2000, on the second anniversary of the war. URGH. These two are too CUTE. I love Fleur. I really do. -w- I love writing her accent, too. And because I know barely any French, I just put in bold the translation of what they were saying. I can easily picture Fleur switching back and forth and not even realizing it… And yeah. The start of their family. :3**

**Thanks so much for reading, and please do review!**

**-mew-tsubaki :}**


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